In current practice, oil and gas operators or drilling contractors utilize a drilling system having numerous drilling rigs in various locations throughout the world. These numerous rigs are oftentimes connected by an intranet or through a secure internet connection. However, remote operation of the rigs from a connected control center or remote console is still difficult due to a number of factors. Oftentimes, when putting together a rig for operation, each subsystem of the rig is manufactured and implemented by a unique vendor. This arrangement creates serious issues and obstacles to implementing remote operation and uniformity to a multiple rig system. For instance, in order for remote operation to occur between the plurality of rigs and a remote control center, the control panels, hardware, and software for each of the multitude of subsystems in each rig would also need to be installed in those remote control centers.
Due to the current drilling supply market situation, it is difficult to standardize the equipment in each rig, as there are not many vendors able to provide all of the subsystems required to operate a single rig on the desired drilling environment. Even when a vendor is capable of providing all the required subsystems to operate a single rig, usually there is some sort of customization still needed to be conducted to operate the rig in the desired environment. Furthermore, drilling is becoming more prolific and expensive, and drill rig personnel is not easily available to man every rig, thus making the need for remote operation greater.
What is greatly needed in the drilling rig field is a method and framework for drilling rig supervisory control automation that allow any smart algorithm to be used to assist, and up to a certain extent, perform the actual supervisory control of the drilling rig directly.
Lastly, efficient practices or operation routines of the supervisory control in any single rig cannot be recorded, modified, saved, and/or played back in that rig or other rigs, or saved at a remote control station for manipulation and use at any rig. Therefore, what is greatly needed in drilling rig is a method and framework for drilling rig supervisory control automation that allows remote operability to every rig in a rig network, and further allows the recording, modification and playback of efficient practices or operation routines in one rig to a multitude of rigs in the rig network.